Patients suffering from localized airway tissue damage often can be treated surgically to remove the damaged (e.g., diseased) tissue. For example, a cancerous lesion in tracheal or bronchial tissue is typically removed via surgical resection. However, in some instances the extent of tissue damage is too large for surgical resection to be possible. For example, endoscopic and radiological evaluation of a patient's trachea may show that the length of residual healthy airway would be too small after removal of the diseased tissue. Also, the location of disease pathology may make it difficult or impossible to remove diseased tissue and effectively resect the remaining healthy tissue. For example, it can be difficult to restore appropriate branch geometry after removal of diseased tissue that includes all or part of the tracheal/bronchial branch.
If effective surgical resection is not feasible, a tissue transplant may be used to replace the excised tissue. For example, tracheal tissue transplants have been performed using natural tracheal tissue from a donor, or using synthetic tracheal tissue grown on a natural tissue scaffold.
However, compatible donor tissue often is not available, and unpredictable risks of disease and rejection are associated with the use of donor tissue. Also, depending on the patient's health status, there may not be sufficient time to prepare an implant grown on a natural scaffold. Furthermore, it can be difficult to grow large or complex regions of synthetic tissue using a natural scaffold.
Citation or identification of any document in this application is not an admission that such document is available as prior art to the present invention.